Agriculture & Rural Land Use
Market Gardening/Truck Farming and the von Thunen Model
“A Portion of Each Crop is Eaten By the Wheels!”- von Thunen. Germany, 1820’s.
Please read the attached and answer the following (on separate paper):
Page 1:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Where are truck farms typically located and what do they specialize in?
What is the truck farms output raised for?
Besides the United States, where else in the world can market gardens be found?
What does the word truck mean?
Who buys MOST of the fruits and vegetables produced by truck farms?
Briefly explain why truck farms are considered highly efficient?
Briefly describe what is meant by specialty farming?
Page 2 thru 5 & 7: Access to markets and von Thunen
1. What are the two economic factors which influence the choice of crops by commercial farmers?
2. What is the significant connection of dairying to the idea that the commercial farmer needs to have
proximity to the market?
3. Which two costs is the commercial farmer most concerned with?
4. Briefly explain why “distance to market” is so critical according to von Thunen?
5. According to von Thunen, what two sets of monetary value must be combined to determine the
most profitable crop?
6. Briefly describe which specific crops were produced in each ring of von Thunen’s model?
7. Identify and briefly explain TWO points which support von Thunen’s assumptions and TWO
points which do not support von Thunen’s assumptions noted from the reading and your
associated interpretation. Please keep in mind historical context when doing this analysis. I.e. Von
Thunen suggested this model 150 years ago! Also, please try to give specific examples wherever
you can.
Page 6: Map – generalized agricultural regions of North America – Truck and Fruit Farming
1. By using the Goode’s Atlas and the following web site,
http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/atlas02/atlas-crops.html, identify the crops
and the associated areas that are dominant with regard to truck and fruit farming.
Finally, please respond to the following statement using pertinent examples from the reading and
class discussion:
There is a significant connection that can be made between the concept of truck farming/market
gardening and von Thunen’s Model. Please give examples to support your rationale.
A Model of Agricultural Land Use
The Von Thunen model of agricultural land use was created by farmer and amateur economist J.H. Von Thunen (1783-1850)
in 1826 (but it wasn't translated into English until 1966). Von Thunen's model was created before industrialization and is based
on the following limiting assumptions:
The city is located centrally within an "Isolated State" which is self sufficient and has no external influences.
The Isolated State is surrounded by an unoccupied wilderness.
The land of the State is completely flat and has no rivers or mountains to interrupt the terrain.
The soil quality and climate are consistent throughout the State.
Farmers in the Isolated State transport their own goods to market via oxcart, across land, directly to the central city.
Therefore, there are no roads.
Farmers act to maximize profits.
In an Isolated State with the foregoing statements being true, Von Thunen hypothesized that a pattern of rings around the city
would develop.
There are four rings of agricultural activity surrounding the city. Dairying and intensive farming occur in the ring closest to the
city. Since vegetables, fruit, milk and other dairy products must get to market quickly, they would be produced close to the city
(remember, we didn't have refrigerated oxcarts!)
Timber and firewood would be produced for fuel and building materials in the second zone. Before industrialization (and coal
power), wood was a very important fuel for heating and cooking. Wood is very heavy and difficult to transport so it is located
as close to the city as possible.
The third zone consists of extensive fields crops such as grains for bread. Since grains last longer than dairy products and are
much lighter than fuel, reducing transport costs, they can be located further from the city.
Ranching is located in the final ring surrounding the central city. Animals can be raised far from the city because they are selftransporting. Animals can walk to the central city for sale or for butchering.
Beyond the fourth ring lies the unoccupied wilderness, which is too great a distance from the central city for any type of
agricultural product.
Even though the Von Thunen model was created in a time before factories, highways, and even railroads, it is still an important
model in geography. The Von Thunen model is an excellent illustration of the balance between land cost and
transportation costs. As one gets closer to a city, the price of land increases. The farmers of the Isolated State balance the
cost of transportation, land, and profit and produce the most cost-effective product for market. Of course, in the real world,
things don't happen as they would in a model.
Inference of Von Thunen’s Model to Continental United
States
Forest
Wheat
Dairy
Forest
Wheat
Beef Cattle
and Sheep
Corn and
Soybeans
Vegetables
Beef Cattle
and Sheep
Specialty
Crops
Cotton and
Tobacco
Dairy
Vegetables
Corn and
Soybeans
Cotton and
Tobacco
Assumptions
1. New York City the only market
2. Crops ranked by rent paying ability
3. No terrain or climatic variation
A
Assumptions
1. New York City the only market
2. Crops ranked by rent paying ability
3. No terrain variation
4. Climatic variation considered
Specialty
Crops
B
Truck Farming:
Horticultural practice of growing one or more vegetable crops on a large scale for shipment to distant markets where the crop
cannot be grown due to climate. It is usually less intensive and diversified than market gardening where a variety of crops are
grown on small farms for sale to local markets. At first this type of farming depended entirely on local or regional markets. As
the use of railroads and large-capacity trucks expanded and refrigerated carriers were introduced, truck farms spread to the
cheaper lands of the West and South, shipping seasonal crops to relatively distant markets where their cultivation is limited by
climate. The major truck-farming areas are in California, Texas, Florida, along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and in the Great
Lakes area. Centers for specific crops vary with the season. Among the most important truck crops are tomatoes, lettuce,
melons, beets, broccoli, other green vegetables, celery, radishes, onions, cabbage, citrus, potatoes, and strawberries.
Post World War II:
Truck and tobacco farming became significant on the Connecticut River terraces. Onions were a popular truck crop. Leaf
tobacco, grown from a variety of Cuban imports, was planted under the shade of cheesecloth screens. The product was found to
be admirable for cigar manufacture and became a best-seller. Blueberries, grown in acidic soils on lands formerly covered with
spruce, became a specialty crop in eastern Maine. In the bogs and swamps of southeastern Massachusetts, cranberries began to
flourish. Rhode Island reds, a variety of chicken used for breeding, helped to inaugurate a significant interest in poultry
production.
Potatoes—for the potato starch industry and for seed—became a major crop in cool, moist Aroostook County in northern
Maine. The potatoes were farmed in a three-year rotation—potatoes, followed by oats, then hay, and back to potatoes. Oats and
hay were fed to the animals; potatoes were strictly a money crop, a fine example of an agricultural specialty. Potato farmers fell
on hard times during the 1950s and 1960s. Competition from potato farmers in Idaho and Oregon was keen. The number of
farms in Aroostook County dropped from more than 4,500 to 1,300. There were a few good potato years in the mid-1970s.
Another specialty area lies in western Vermont—in the Champlain Lowland. It is devoted to dairying.